Thought I Knew You
by vmars15
Summary: Puck and Quinn have a conversation after ignoring each other for so long.  Sam is brought up, as well as Beth.  A lot better than it sounds, this story is hard to summarize :   :     Warning:  A few swear words thrown in here and there.


"Where's Sam?" He asked as he leaned against the strong support of the bleachers. They were behind them, waiting in the shadows. She had been taking a shortcut from Cheerio's practice. He had been scouting out the area with the chance Sandy Ryerson was hanging around there. He needed to score some weed so he could make more pot brownies to pay for his family's water bill that month. He had wished his attempts at small talk didn't always make him seem like a jealous little boy to her, but every time he managed to fail.

Quinn stopped in her tracks and looked at her ex-boyfriend. If you could call him that. They had never been official, but given their history he deserved some sort of title. Baby-daddy was not an option. She looked at Puck. He didn't look the way she remembered. Confident. Arrogant. Sure of himself. Instead, he appeared meek, as if he had been afraid to talk to her. Afraid to ask her the question. She blamed herself. Through her mission to get back to the life she had been forced to give up for nine months last year, she had also managed to erase him from her life. He would only serve as a reminder to her darkest days. She didn't need that. She needed people who would help her move on. Like Sam. Especially Sam. Still, their relationship was always missing something. Lacking in any real depth. She blinked her eyes to allow herself to come back from dreaming. Sam was the one for her. Puck was back in the past, but she needed to be civil to him. They were still in Glee Club together.

Quinn shrugged her shoulders. "Probably at the gym. He's there most of the time."

"Yeah," Puck nodded, "We spot each other. He's usually complaining about how he can't resist Cool Ranch Doritos."

Quinn smirked. Her boyfriend did have an obsession with those chips. However, she didn't know that he was friends, at least that's what it seemed like, with Puck. "Do you guys… hang out or something?"

Puck shook his head. The guy was cool sometimes, but there was too much awkwardness between them. Sam knew that Puck was the one who had knocked up his current girlfriend the previous year, and Puck felt that Sam was the sole reason why he did not have Quinn at the moment. "Only at the gym. Or at football practice. I guess you two are spending too much time together for us to get some real bonding in."

Quinn bit her lip. She didn't know if Puck had tried to put a sexual connotation into the statement or not. She had gone to great lengths to convince people that she was celibate once again. "We're dating. We spend the appropriate amount of time together."

He smirked. "I guess I misheard when I heard him talking about how many cold showers he needs to take dating you." Puck knew the boy mentioned that fact when he was close enough to hear it. It had been to cause jealousy, or to stake a claim on the girl. Puck could admit that Sam had succeeded at the first part, but definitely not the second.

Quinn rolled her eyes. She thought that Sam's problem had been solved ever since the whole Beiste situation. She had hoped as she was in no way going to sleep with him. That was never to be an option. "Do we have to keep talking about Sam? If you're not friends then I don't see why you want to."

He wanted to because it was the only topic he knew to talk about with her. It wasn't so serious as talking about Beth or their messed up history, but it was close enough to home to remind her that they had once been together somewhat. "Chill Quinn. If you want to go then you can."

She tried to take a step. She had better go. There was never going to be any good staying with Puck. He was bad news. Yet her feet wouldn't allow her to. They remained planted on the ground. She looked at Puck, still leaning against the bleacher while she stood a good four feet away from him and raised an eyebrow. "You know Santana is telling people that you two are dating."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we are."

She hadn't been expecting that answer. Puck and Santana couldn't be dating. They were just supposed to sleep together and be sluts. Dating each other could possibly lead to Quinn being jealous, and she didn't want that at all. Maybe he was lying. Maybe this was his plan, and he was trying to make her jealous on purpose.

"Are you?"

Puck smiled at her. He knew that he had made her a tiny bit jealous. It seemed hard to do so because Quinn always made it seem like she was a million times happier without him, but there were times where he could see a hint of envy in her eyes. He had tried to make Quinn jealous when he had entered the choir room with Artie to ask Santana out when she was sitting right there. He had noticed that she hadn't been able to peel her eyes off of the situation. It was those little moments that made Puck think that maybe he still had some sort of hold on her.

"No," Puck answered, "Just hooking up."

Quinn caught herself smiling at his answer and quickly calmed her expression. She could not allow him to think that she was happy that he was single. Besides, it wouldn't matter if she was. She was with Sam. Sam was her boyfriend. That was all that mattered. They were in line to become prom king and queen very shortly. She was back on top and that's all she had ever wanted. Still, Puck had been a big part of her life. It was only normal for her to want to check in with him every now and then.

There was a silence. Neither of the teenagers were talking. Puck was looking at Quinn as if he were contemplating something. Quinn had her eyes cat down on her feet. She wasn't interested in having a staring contest with the boy. After a moment, Puck spoke up.

"Before I went to juvie… before Sam joined Glee Club," He managed to stammer out, "Did I have a chance?"

Quinn was surprised at his question. He sounded doubtful when he asked it, like he wasn't sure if it were the best thing to do so. He wasn't the cool and confident boy he portrayed to the rest of the world. Here he was a self conscious teen unsure of what could have been. Quinn thought about her answer as she shuffled her left foot and crossed her arms. She wasn't sure if he did. Before Sam had came into the picture all there was had been Puck. He still wanted to be with her, but they had started the school year knowing that they wouldn't be together. It would bring up hurt feelings over Beth, and Quinn wanted to be a born again virgin while Puck was remaining content with his sex shark status. Still, throughout the start of the school year Quinn had found herself mouthing out lyrics to him such as _You are the only exception_, and fan-girling all over his performance of _Only the Good Die Young_, which she had known was about her. He would have had a chance if she had become a little more confident in her social position, but then he had to screw up and go to juvie. She couldn't be with a guy like that. That would be an image ruiner, and worse, it proved that Puck was not the guy she had once thought he was… or at least the guy she thought he could be. He lived up to everyone's warnings.

Puck knew he had screwed up. Juvie was the last straw. Quinn had put up with him being an asshole and a douchebag, but he knew that she wouldn't be able to let being a legitimate criminal slide by. The worst part was that Sam had chosen the weeks he had been locked up to go after his girl. It wasn't fair. If Sam hadn't joined, or if he hadn't stolen that ATM… things would have gone a different route. He was sure of it.

"It doesn't matter," She whispered, "Sam is my boyfriend. Plus, being with you… us being together, it'd only remind us of _her_ Puck."

Puck looked off to the side, and leaned further against the pole of the bleachers. He didn't want to bother Quinn anymore. Whenever Beth was brought up he was reminded of how hard of a time Quinn had gone through to give birth to their daughter the previous year. He was reminded of all the pain and sorrow. He didn't want that. He didn't want Quinn to feel that way. He wanted to help her. He only wanted to help.

"I think about her a lot."

Quinn nodded her head in agreement. "I do too. It's hard to forget about her."

Puck had a scowl on his face when he looked up at Quinn. "Do you talk about it with Sam? Do you let him know about it all?"

Quinn shook her head. "I remind him about it whenever he tries to go further than I want… but he's not the best person to talk about it with."

"Why not?"

Quinn shrugged her shoulders. She didn't want to badmouth her boyfriend to Puck. That's what girls do with guys they want to hook up with. She knew very well. She had been in this position more than a year ago. That's how she ended up with Beth. If only she had said things were good when Puck had asked about her and Finn a year ago. She couldn't make the same mistake twice. She couldn't say a bad word about Sam. It would give Puck the wrong idea. However, Quinn did want to say something about it, so she thought of the most politically correct way of saying it.

"When we first met… he kept bringing it up. He told me he was impressed with me coming back, and that he thought I was brave for giving her up. But then, well he was trying to be sweet, I know he was but… he compared it to dying his hair."

Puck laughed. He couldn't help it. He should have figured that someone as dumb as Sam Evans would think that giving up your daughter an dying your hair a bright blonde colour were on par with each other. It figured.

"Don't laugh," She pouted, "He really did have good intentions. He just… well he doesn't understand. No one does."

Puck stood up straight, a little angry at what he thought she was insinuating. "I do."

Quinn tightened her ponytail. "Yeah, but we don't talk."

Puck was becoming impatient. He looked up at Quinn and spoke directly to her. "When are we getting back together?"

She rolled her eyes. "Were we… ever together?"

Puck didn't know quite what to say. He knew that she had to consider what they had being together. Maybe there hadn't been a label, but they had a baby together! That counted for something. He hated that she was acting like everything they had together hadn't meant a damn thing. "Yeah, we were." He wasn't going to offer a heartfelt explanation.

Quinn bit her lip. She had so much to say to him, but it would risk so much for the words to come out of her mouth. She had to go on the defensive. She had to remind herself of Sam. That was her boyfriend. She was going to be with him for the rest of high school. Right?

"You don't deserve me." She believed that. Even though feelings were still with her, she still did think that Puck was not ready to be in a relationship with her. He was a little boy, a bully, a womanizer. She needed someone that was more than that.

To her surprise, he took a couple steps closer to her, put his hand on her shoulder, and agreed with her. "I don't… but give me a little time. I'm trying."

He stroked her shoulder and walked off. Quinn stood there, feeling paralyzed. Puck wasn't done fighting for her. The question was if she wanted him to continue trying. After regaining her ability to move Quinn started to walk to her car. Her mind was still focusing on if she wanted Puck to be a better person for her. Was trying to recruit members for the club when Kurt transferred a part of that plan? Was befriending Artie? Was passing math? Still, there was all that crappy history of him sexting or dating girls for popularity. Was he really trying to change?

"Screw it," Quinn said when she was trying, "I want him to try."

_ I hope you all enjoyed this story! I managed to write this today and yesterday when I realized I had free time and it was so much fun. I miss writing!_

_I'm getting so pissed off with this show! 10 episodes, almost half of the season has gone by/. Quinn and Puck have not received one single scene together! It's very frustrating! Sam's nice and all (sometimes) but Puck is who Quinn is meant for. Hopefully the writers have planned it so that Puck has to prove himself to Quinn before they begin a real relationship. Hopefully. i try not to get my hopes up on that matter._

_Thank you all for reading, and if you have the time I would very much appreciate if you could leave a review! Writers live for feedback :)_

_ Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and let's all cross our fingers that Quinn/Puck have some interaction when the show returns!_

_ Until next time,_

_ Happy reading! _


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